At the Beginning
by Red Bess Rackham
Summary: One idea of how the Marauders may have met... Hogwarts train, a prank, handshakes and smiles. Sound about right? Oneshot, MWPP.


**Disclaimer: **I do not own the song, the lyrics or the rights to "At the Beginning" by Richard Marx and Donna Lewis. I do not own Harry Potter or any affiliated characters, etc. I am not getting money off of this. If I was, I would have hundreds of thousands of stories to help pay for my schooling.

**A/n**: I had a really terrible, awful retarded Monday today and to cheer myself up, I decided to post a little one-shot I've had kicking around my notebooks for quite some time now. I think I originally was going to make it a several chaptered fic or something, but after reading it, I liked it the way it was. So this is just a little idea of how the Marauders might have met. The italic lines are from the song "At the Beginning" (it's the one during the credits of the Disney movie "Anastastia" - wait, IS it Disney? Oh well. You hopefully know the one I mean).

* * *

**At the beginning**

_We were strangers, starting out on a journey… never dreamin' what we'd have to go through…_

A young boy, no more than ten, leaned comfortably against the reddish colored seats on the steaming train. It was his first day of school and he was merely waiting for the train to begin its journey to the famed Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry before he would feel completely at ease. For some reason, he was expecting something – anything – to go wrong, preventing him from heading away to the school, which he already somehow imagined would be a refuge for him.

The boy's hair was sort of a gray-blonde color, and he looked a bit older than his real age. He had a thick blue book out, with no title or author name visible on the cover or spine, and was reading it intently. Just beside him on the train seat, was another book, this one black and laying on top of a neatly folded gray coat. On top of the book in gold script was the name, "Remus Lupin". The boy appeared to be a bit hard done by as his clothes were a little ripped and a little patched in places although they gave the impression of being the best robes he owned.

Noise sprinkled in through the partially open window as more and more families came into the station via the hidden brick wall that lead to platform nine and three quarters. There were shouts of joy and exclamation as students met up with old friends, and some sounds of tears as scared first years – like the boy, Remus – left their parents and family behind.

There was a small knock on the half-open compartment door. "Hello, may I join you?" The boy standing in the doorway wore very clean, very new looking black robes. His eyes were a deep, dark brown color and his ebony hair was wildly messy. Judging by the way it was flat here and sticking up there, it appeared as though he (or more likely his mother) had tried desperately to make it lay down but it had pointedly refused.

Remus nodded. "Sure."

The boy smiled politely and stowed his things in the train compartment before settling down in the seat across from Remus. He didn't say anything for a little while, but at certain times Remus could feel the other boy's eyes on him. Finally Remus gently closed his book and cleared his throat. "Sorry, I didn't introduce myself. I'm Remus Lupin. What's your name?"

"Oh, James Potter." The boy with the black hair smiled and stuck out his hand.

Remus lightly shook it.

Before the two of them could say anything more, another boy banged into the door, rather than on it, laughing heartily. He glanced inside at James and Remus and asked rather breathlessly, "Full?"

Remus and James shook their heads.

"Brilliant." This boy plopped down beside James. His robes were also very new and clean. Like James, this boy's hair was black, though it was slightly shaggier and less messy-looking than James'.

He briefly regarded Remus then James and as he smiled, it was apparent he was going to have a stunning smile in a few years to accompany those bright, clear blue-gray eyes. "You're that Potter kid, right?" he said to James.

James nodded. "And you're… Grimmauld Place?"

"Right." The boy smiled again and shook James' hand. "Sirius Black." He turned to Remus. "And you… I don't think I know?"

Remus shook his head and said, "No, I don't think. I'm Remus Lupin."

"Nice to meet you Remus."

At that moment, a small boy with dirty blonde hair stumbled past their compartment. He briefly looked in, gave a terrified whimper and kept moving. He had some sort of purple-green gooey mess all over his shoulders and down his front.

Sirius burst out laughing but quickly shouted, "Oy! Come on back! I'm real sorry 'bout that!"

When the boy didn't reappear, Sirius jumped up and hollered out into the hallway, "Oy, I really _am_ sorry! C'mon back, I'll clean it off." He paused. "I swear to you! I know how to get it off." He gave an aggravated sigh.

"Honestly." Sirius slumped back down into his seat and crossed his arms over his chest. He mumbled, "Some people just can't take a joke."

The boy covered in goo tentatively poked his head into the compartment a few moments later. "Do you really know how to get it off?"

Sirius suppressed a snicker and nodded. "'Course I do. Wouldn't have put it on anyone if I didn't know how to take it off. Hold still." Sirius pulled out his wand and pointed it at the boy. "_Scourgify!_"

Instantly the boy was goo-free. "Thanks!" he said smally but didn't leave right away. He looked around the compartment at the others and then his cheeks went a little pinker.

"Er, is there room for one more?" he dug his toe at the carpet and clearly expected all three of them to firmly say something along the lines of "no way".

James shrugged and glanced at the other two. "Don't see why not."

"Sure mate. C'mon in." Sirius waved the boy to take the empty seat across from him, next to Remus.

The little blonde boy seemed ecstatic and shocked that the others actually were alright with him joining them. He sat down immediately. "Thank you." He murmured.

"No problem. And no hard feelings, right, er…"

"Peter Pettigrew." The blonde boy filled in with a grin.

"Right. No hard feelings then, Peter?" Sirius asked.

"Nope!" Now that he had no more sticky mess all over him, Peter seemed quite content merely not to be alone.

The other three boys smiled back.

James studied Remus, Sirius and Peter for a moment each before saying, "You know, I have a funny feeling we're going to be friends."

Remus held his book tightly and suddenly had the same odd feeling as he looked at the other boys.

Peter grinned even wider than before. "You really think so?"

Sirius shrugged. "Why not."

The train pulled out of the station and headed on its way to Hogwarts.

_I'll be there when the world stops turning, I'll be there when the storm is through… In the end I want to be standing at the beginning with you…_

* * *

**A/n**: There you are. And hopefully tomorrow is a better day than today. (sigh) Thanks for reading! 


End file.
